Previous Month:

Ted Snider

Official
Washington’s politicians and pundits – virtually across the political spectrum
– continue to insist that Iran is the chief sponsor of terrorism. It is a
classic example of how Official Washington, which decries “fake news” and
“alternative facts,” is at the forefront of spreading fake news and alternative
facts.....

Aban Marker Kabraji

Like many other
women in her village, and many parts of the world, Leena is the primary
caregiver for the family, while her husband goes out to work. Most of the time,
these women also take on the responsibility of collecting water and firewood,
as well as growing and harvesting crops....

Syeda Mamoona Rubab

What Pakistanis
are missing is that the issue of the terrorist sanctuaries is not a new one and
has roots in the mistrust between the two countries. The Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan first shifted its sanctuaries to Afghan soil after the Swat operation
in 2011 and the second phase came after the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in
June 2014. The Afghan government acknowledges their presence, but clearly wants
to use the sanctuaries as a quid pro quo for an end to what it says is the
Taliban/Haqqani network presence in Pakistan....

Khaled Ahmed

Pakistan is
pretending to survive terrorism through literature festivals the ideological
state is hardly able to support without cringing. Yet, these are building loyal
followers in cities like terror-haunted Karachi, the madrasa-haunted Islamabad,
ever-conservative Lahore, with its memories of more pluralist days under the
Raj, and old Lyallpur, renamed Faisalabad after a Saudi king, which can’t
account for why it doesn’t have a bookshop, despite being the country’s
third-largest city....

Rana Safvi

This
fundamentalism is a recent phenomenon. In the past, the influence of the Sufi
and Bhakti movements encouraged harmony between the communities. In Alam Mein
Intikhaab Dilli, Maheshwar Dyal writes, “Holi is an ancient Hindustani festival
which is played by every man and woman irrespective of religion and caste.
After coming to India, the Muslims also played Holi with gusto, be it the
Badshah or the Faqeer."....

Raza Rumi

A suicide
bomber who failed to detonate himself at Sakhi Sarwar shrine in 2011, in an
interview, said that he had been originally recruited for jihad in Afghanistan
but diverted to South Punjab due to the shirk and Murda Parasti
(worshipping the dead) prevalent at the shrines. Intriguingly, he said that the
reason for this mission was the large number of Kafirs (infidels) that had to
be tackled. Such Pakistani Kafirs, he was told, were greater in number – even
more than America....

The Muslim Vibe

معرفة unlike علم
is that which is always preceded by ignorance! It is that which requires
contemplation and thought to bring about the knowledge. This is why God is
described as العالم (the All-Knower) but
cannot be described as ‘A’rif. God does not need to contemplate a thing to know
it, nor does He encounter a state of ignorance or forgetfulness. Transcendent
be Thy name!....

Andre Vltchek

Afghanistan, a
stunning but terribly scarred and injured land has been suffering from a
concussion. It has been dizzy and disoriented. It can hardly walk. Still it
being Afghanistan, it has been walking anyway, against all odds!.....

Professor Masood Alam Falahi, New Age Islam

Marriage in Islamic Shariat is considered a pure and sustained act. Allah Almighty wants men and women to lead their marital relationship as a prosperous and evergreen life bereft of every sort of disputes. He does not like any pollution of clashes and divisions to touch the refinement and purity of this relationship. For a marriage to be cheerful and cordial, He has given some responsibilities to the husband and the wife. In order to live a good martial life, the spouses always need to create passion of patience, tolerance, self-sacrifice and ignore all the trifles….

Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman

This is
especially true of divisive political issues. Your mind cannot master and
retain sufficiently detailed knowledge about many of them. You must rely on
your community. But if you are not aware that you are piggybacking on the
knowledge of others, it can lead to hubris....

Abdus Sattar Ghazali

At least six
U.S. states are challenging President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0 executive
order that bars new visas for people from six Muslim countries and temporarily
shuts down the U.S. refugee program. On March 8, the state of Hawaii filed
suit, arguing the new federal order will harm Muslims living in the state. As
of March 10, five other states have joined together in a combined challenge to
the latest order from Trump.....

Andrew Delatolla

These ideas
took on a distinct form that sought to salvage Islam as the imperial bedrock of
the Ottoman Empire, but also create a national identity that altered the
state-society relationship from subject to citizen. The amalgamation of Western
ideas of nationalism and rational governance with principles derived from
interpretations of Islam and imperial governance were dismissed by European
consuls, who thought it necessary for the Ottoman administration to reform by
casting away the traditional knowledge and practices of Ottoman governance. ..

Shahid M Amin

Bloodshed in
Syria can stop only if Iran and Saudi Arabia come to terms. Iran must stop its
military intervention in Syria and the Saudis should curb the Salafi religious
institutions in their country that provide inspiration and recruits for IS and
other religious extremists. ....

Robert Fisk

On an official
visit to Israel in 1986, Thatcher said that she regarded discussion of
Jerusalem as “internal politics”. In 2001, Tony Blair’s government granted 90
arms exports licences to Israel for “defensive” weapons – including torpedoes,
armoured vehicles, bombs and missiles. There is much, much more of this in
Cronin’s book, including Blair’s useless and disgraceful period as “peace”
envoy to the Middle East and the growing business contracts between British
companies and Israeli arms providers – to the extent that the British army
ended up deploying Israeli-made drones in the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq....

Prashanth MP

However, after
less than a century of leading the Muslim community from the front, the Mujahid
movement, the Salafi sect in Kerala, seems to have reached a dead end — some of
them, who claim they too are following Salafi Manhaj (methodology), have
declared that democracy and secularism are un-Islamic; others are unable to
decide whether seeking help from the ethereal being jinn is allowed in Islam or
whether Sehr (black magic) will have any effect on human beings.....

Dr. Niaz Murtaza

I am a firm
believer in secular democracy not because I don’t believe in Islam’s
progressive elements, but because I see the faith hijacked by retrogressive
forces and little inclination within the majority to challenge their hold and
develop a progressive Islamic vision. In such a situation, secular democracy
seems the best available option....